I came out into the pasture to say hi while Baby and Nessie were cushing side by side. Nessie got up immediately to come and see me, but Baby felt satisfied with staying down. I walked nearer to Baby and Nessie followed. Here you can see Baby telling Nessie he doesn’t feel comfortable with her too close to him while he’s in a vulnerable position. Nessie doesn’t really seem to be getting the message though…

Yesterday, I moved Baby from his temporary pen back out to the pasture with Nessie. Which means I felt he was strong enough to compete with her and well enough to walk a greater distance to get to his food and water. It made me very happy to see him in there with her again and even though Nessie was pastured just across from the pen, I think she missed physically interacting with Baby a lot.

The last several months have been extremely stressful for me and there has been times where I was worried that Baby wouldn’t recover at all. That he was slowly dying. Seeing him back out in the pasture today gave me a visual testament of how far he’s come. Last month, I couldn’t have imagined putting them together again, but tonight they were able to eat again together in peace.

However, Baby’s still a long way from being 100% and I’m going to have to watch him closely. If he begins dragging his legs again, even sporadically, he’s going to have to be penned up again. It’s unclear to me whether his muscles need to be worked or left to recover in a smaller area, but I believe he needs to exercise them to re-build them. Mentally, the pasture is much better for him, too. The pen was small and didn’t provide him with enough stimulation. Now, he’s able to live like he’s meant to live: grazing the land side by side with his own species.

Every year I give Baby fruit on his birthday and buy him a beads for around his neck. This year I made him an ‘ice cake’ by freezing water mixed with juice in layers which contained different fruits and vegetables. It was a very nice day and I think Baby enjoyed his gifts and recognized that it was his special day again.

You can see in this video that his health is greatly improving. I can notice that he’s limping in his back legs, but it isn’t very apparent. Before, they were so stiff and hard for him to move that he’d drag them sometimes. I haven’t seen him do that in awhile now.

I got Baby’s blood results back and his Vitamin E levels have returned to normal! This is fantastic news. I was very concerned that there was something else going on that was not allowing Baby to absorb Vitamin E properly, but the treatment has proven successful. His Selenium levels are also still in normal range, so that seems to be properly consistent. Finally, the trace mineral panel also came back normal. Thankfully Baby doesn’t have copper deficiency or toxicity as feared by someone I had consulted with.

Baby’s mood and appetite seem to be regularly improving. There’s been no sudden or dramatic changes, but I believe he’s on the up ramp to getting better.

Thankfully it didn’t prove too difficult for my friend (who is a vet tech) to draw the blood. A rope was used to tie off the base of his neck, while I held his head steady. We tried once for about ten minutes before adjusting ourselves and then attempting it again. After another poke or two she found the vein and the blood flowed freely from the jugular. Despite Baby’s moaning, he was very patient and let us help him. He’s such a special boy. And my friend did a great job working on him, this being the first time she’s taken blood from a camel.

I also bagged some fresh feces to check for parasites and off we went to deliver everything to the clinic. The blood will be shipped out tomorrow to the University of Arizona and then off to Michigan State. His copper levels will be checked using a trace mineral panel and of course his Vitamin E and Selenium levels will be tested again.

His feces was already examined earlier today and Baby is negative for any parasites. I didn’t expect anything to show up, but it’s good to know he’s in the clear.

Baby is looking deceptively better since I got back from visiting my family in the midwest. Unfortunately, I think a lot of it is because he had some winter coat growth while I was gone that’s now covering up his obvious lack of muscle. Though, I cautiously noticed that he seems to be walking better on his back legs. His spirits seem higher and he was actively following me around from inside his pen in anticipation of getting some hay. There was a definite weakness about him, but no dragging of his legs behind him. He doesn’t always drag them though and sometimes his back legs seem more functional than they did just hours before.

I’ll have to watch him closely for the next few days to better decide if he’s actually improving or I just happened to keep seeing him walking better.

Tomorrow is a big day for Baby. He’ll be getting two blood draws to recheck his Vitamin E and Selenium levels and a second to test his Copper levels. The blood draws will be preformed by my friend who is a vet tech and then the vials will be driven directly to the clinic that’s treating Baby to be sent out to the lab. I tried to have the Doctor out this week, but she was completely booked and I didn’t want to let this go until next week. I’ve ordered another round of probiotics to begin to give him after the draws, just in case the stress affects his pH.

It’s getting cold here and I hope that will make Baby more comfortable. It always did make him more active.

There’s nothing else to do now, but get that blood to the lab and wait for the results.